Michigan's new high school graduation requirements: Good stuff or political eye wash?

Watching politicians make decisions about what our kids should learn in local schools can be pretty scary?

I ask myself:

•  Are they making the decisions based on a foundation of good information?
• Or are they taking the easy way to provide themselves with political eye wash, something that looks good but has little or maybe a negative consequence?

Take what's happening in Michigan with toughened high school graduation requirements signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and passed by the Michigan Legislature.  Politicians around the state are busy patting themselves on their backs about how our state's graduates will be prepared for the jobs of the 21st century.

Take a look at how all high school students in the state will be required to take almost four years of math, including algebra and geometry.  Then look at the other requirements as outlined in a Detroit Free Press story this morning.

Is this a realistic possibility for every kid?  Do they need all this to be succesfull as the experts and the politicians maintain?  What about the kids who get virtually no help from home with their homework?  Did anybody talk to teachers?  Will this cause more kids to drop out of high school?

I haven't seen any real answers to these questions.  They probably weren't asked is my guess.

Tags: public schools, high school, Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, high school graduation requirements, Michigan Legislature

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